I have discovered that a weapon's gun barrel can be flexed a small number of degrees and yet the weapon can still be fired without damaging it, or damaging the inside of its barrel surprisingly. One particular purpose of such flexing is to adjust the aim of the weapon that is when the muzzle of a rifle is deflected a few degrees from true straight it can change and be used to correct the path of the bullet. The flexing is only a temporary bending, it is preferred to have the flexing reversed after each instantaneous flex. While the concept might seem impractical at first for a variety of reasons, and might lead to damage or harm nonetheless I have experimented and found otherwise, contrary to popular belief. I have flexed a rifle muzzle (nondeformably) up to five degrees for aiming purposes and left it that way before the bullet was fired and yet found no noticeable scoring to the inside of the barrel and no damage noticeable by firing the weapon. There is no reason why a weapon cannot be used in this way apparent to me so long as the flexing is a small number of degrees. What I have accomplished by this is a manner to impart a desired correction to the aim of a bullet, according to the amount of deflection I selectively apply on the barrel with my apparatus for this purpose, disclosed herein. This leaves one with another method for aiming a weapon such as a rifle, a machine gun, or even of larger cannons if enough force were applied, without having to aim the whole weapon, as is done now. Moving the whole weapon's position to aim as is conventional in fire control apparatus, requires more movement of weight and force over a short period of time and probably yields less accuracy than by reflexing the muzzle, which is believed simpler, more accurate, moves far less bulk, and has a shorter response time for effecting an aiming. Also, when the weapon is hand held such as a machine gun, a fire control system for aiming second and subsequent shots in a burst, would be impossible to have, so my method is the only way known to me to aim subsequent shots automatically with improved accuracy. Previously, attention was focused on improving the aim at the breech and fire control areas, in the continuing quest for aiming accuracy. No one to my knowledge has ever attempted to improve aim by flexing the muzzle slightly, thinking no doubt that damage might result or that it would be impractical to accomplish. However, I have conceived this concept and developed apparatus to carry it out. It must be remembered that, in my apparatus, the bend of the muzzle is made before the expected shot, and locked in that position until after the shot has passed. It is also however, conceivable to flex the muzzle at all times with my apparatus, in a continuous manner to continuously correct the muzzles's aiming angle for fire-on-the-move stabilization. Nonetheless, the barrel centering occurs naturally and the barrel springs back to true straight whenever the flexing forces are withdrawn, it is in a sense like a spring device. Even if it did not completely return, with my apparatus a corrective flex might be applied to overcome its effect anyway.
One possible application for my concept, and apparatus, involves correction of an automatic cannon having internal errors, or an automatic assault rifle. Assuming a ten round sequence of firing, for instance, it is known that each bullet falls at a different spot on the target from where the very first one lands, despite the shooter's best efforts to continue to aim the rifle at the same spot where the first round was fired. Even if the weapon had been locked in a vise grip for example to absolutely maintain the positional aim without question, each of the succeeding nine bullets would still fall in a different spot from the first anyway, and all different spots from one another; all the locations are predictable and repeat themselves. Every time one fires the ten round sequence for example, one gets the same signature. This phenomenon is because the muzzle oscillates after the first kick-back or muzzle climb action, and for other reasons as well, in the time interval between the rounds, so that the muzzle cannot settle down from vibrating, in the time for next round. Therefore, it is impossible for the shooter to have identical accuracy on all ten shots no matter how well he might aim. With my discovery however, I have invented a deflection apparatus to flex the muzzle sequentially and appropriately, before each and every shot to compensate for the expected error(s) in aiming caused by muzzle oscillations off of true straight. Each correction is of course different, both in the X-axis and Y-axis directions (assuming the weapon is aimed in the Z-axis direction). I have devised a number of mechanical means to accomplish the requisite deflections, which can operate during the short times permitted, in order to have the proper deflections applied and locked in place before each next shot arrives. I have very successfully tested a number of embodiments, and demonstrated that the concept works in practice.
Another possible application for my concept and apparatus is with the large cannons such as aboard ship, which fire large projectiles, or like applications. Analogous to the rifle, it is possible to aim the "big guns" also by flexing the barrel muzzle. This accomplishes another last-minute aiming of the fired projectile if desired to be in addition to the fire control, for example, or to replace it entirely. Conventionally, adjustment to such cannons are made at their bases by large mechanical means, by moving the entire cannon into proper aim, and usually before firing. If there were a need for a split-second, small angle re-aiming, which could not be accomplished by such servomechanisms at the base areas of the cannons in a fraction of a second if needed, this could be corrected by my invention (at small angles of correction), by a flexing of the cannon's muzzle, using the same principles of this invention, and even in the time the projectile travels up the cannon barrel after it has left the breech it can still be corrected. Of course, the pressures needed to bend a cannon are extremely large compared to those needed to bend a mere rifle. Nonetheless, there is much less weight to move in the split second involved using my method than by the conventional method of moving the entire cannon for aim. My method could be used to "fine tune" the aim of this weapon at the very last moment, as under computer control for example; this could be coordinated with other fire control methods on the cannon, for instance. It must be remembered of course that with my invention, one does not expect to flex beyond the elastic limit of the barrel, so there will be no deformation of the barrel shape. However it is still theoretically possible to correct for the effects of that with my invention, as to aiming. While with the conventional methods it might still be possible to re-aim a large gun mounted on servos at the last moment by moving the entire gun, yet for a rifle it is not possible without this invention because it is hand-held and its aim is taken by a human operator, not by servos. Thus, the value of my apparatus on a hand-held weapon is especially apparent.
With this invention, one convenient way to flex the barrel is to utilize a brace means, providing two fulcrums, where the force could be applied between the two fulcrum points (such as 40 and 42 in FIG. 2). A servomechanism (such as 14 there) can be used, electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic types, etc. to apply the force. In one experiment I used type a MOOG electrohydraulic servo-actuator on a 20 MM, M--139 Automatic Cannon setup. One brace means plus servo setup is needed for correction in each of the X-axis and Y-axis directions, though it is possible to build one brace means to accomodate both directions, a hollow cylindrical setup for example could be used as a brace. Before each of the sequential shots was fired, corrective deflections, both X and Y, were applied, as based upon my previously observed measurements as to these errors. The device responds electrically, very rapidly to orders for desired deflection positions. I was able to get virtually direct hits, all ten times, in such a case by using my apparatus. It is possible, and desired, to build the servos, brace and etc., setup into a miniaturized collar weighing under a pound and occupying little space, which could be made to simply slip over the end of the muzzle and locked in place. The gun plus servos, would have to be calibrated at the time of manufacture, to ascertain the right deflections needed for each instant of the ten round sequence, for example and thus to program it into my apparatus to go through that corrective sequence of ten. It is possible to have the proper sequence programmed into a memory device, if electrical servos are utilized, however an all mechanical setup, for the programming, is contemplated. A cam shaft or cam type apparatus is envisioned to take the flexing through the proper sequence at each step of the ten round firing, automatically just as the weapon fires and powered by the gun itself, using force of gas pressures generated within the gun upon each firing as the power for doing the flexing (see FIG. 10, e.g.). While the electrical programming is attractive since it provides for easy calibration and changes in programming, a mechanical device requiring no electrical power is preferred for the field since it requires no battery or the like. Also envisioned for use in my apparatus are hydraulic displacement devices which are either electrically, or gas operated and programmed into a flexing sequence.
My invention also finds application in cases wherever such an extreme precision aim is required; or whether the possibility of a last split-second refinement to the aim would be so sufficiently desirable that one would be willing to tolerate the necessary extra equipment according to this invention to accomplish it. Possibly in aerial combat, the flexing-type aim correction for the automatic, burst-fire guns might be usable, as it would insure better aim for each and every shot, and the weight of the add-on equipment could be tolerated. In certain "Star-Wars" type long distance shots, where every little bit of further angular accuracy is desirable owing to the large target distances magnifying the error, this invention could be very useful. The end of the aiming device, of whatever type weapon is involved in such systems, could be flexed and deflected using my idea.
The programming of the deflection sequence, or original calibration, might be done by use of lasers to find the target, for instance, and then electrooptically measuring where each bullet in a sequence actually falls, and then electronically correcting for it using my flexing concept and apparatus to make the compensations. The calibration therefore could thus be run in less than milliseconds, electronically.